A Sympathetic Policeman

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28606, 7 June 1958, Page 10

A Sympathetic Policeman

LONDON. London policemen have a reputation of being sympathetic, but the quality can be carried too far, to judge from a humorous story told to Tom Fallon, a famous Scotland Yard Superintendent, now retired, during a recent tour of Finland, and repeated by him in the 8.8. C. programme “In Town Tonight.” A member of one of the audiences he addressed while in Finland volunteered the story, about a poor lonely woman who was wandering along the Thames Embankment one awful, wintry night with the intention of throwing herself into the river. “One of your policemen grabbed her,” said the storyteller, “and they both went and sat down on a seat nearby. They had been talking, I suppose, for about half an hour, when they both got up and threw themselves in the river.” No truth is claimed for the story, but it appealed to Fallon as an illustration of the keen sense of humour he found among the Finns.

21 Girls Arrested.—Chicago police took 21 young girls into custody after they rioted on a bus when told to stop smoking. The girls, all students at a correctional elementary school, scratched, screamed and kicked. One policeman was bitten on the hand. —Chicago.